The Pokémon Company International

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The Pokémon Company International logo

The Pokémon Company International (abbreviated to TPCi) is a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, responsible for managing the Pokémon franchise outside of Asia.[1] In Australia, the Pokémon franchise is managed by Nintendo Australia. In South Korea, the franchise is managed by Pokémon Korea, Inc., which started operations in 2006 alongside Nintendo of Korea.

The company was formed in 2009 with the merger of Pokémon USA and Pokémon UK into a single international subsidiary.

History

Old Pokémon USA logo

As Pokémon USA

Pokémon USA, Inc. (or PUSA) was founded in February 2001 to handle the licensing and marketing of Pokémon in all territories outside of Asia. The first President of PUSA was Tatsumi Kimishima. In 2002, he was replaced by Akira Chiba, when Kimishima was promoted to President of Nintendo of America following Minoru Arakawa's retirement.

In 2003, the distribution agreement with Wizards of the Coast for the Pokémon trading cards ended. After this, Pokémon USA took over as the manufacturer and distributor of the Trading Card Game.

In January 2006, the licensing and merchandising agreement between 4Kids Entertainment and Pokémon USA expired. This agreement included the dubbing of the anime so Pokémon USA switched to producing the English dub in association with TAJ Productions which had worked with 4Kids on seasonsone through five. The recasting of the main characters created a large controversy. In May of the same year, Kids' WB! announced that it would be dropping all anime from its autumn lineup in its move to The CW, which included the Pokémon anime. Pokémon USA went into negotiations with Cartoon Network to air past and future episodes of Pokémon, which turned out successful. In June, a Master Toy licensing agreement was signed with Jakks Pacific.

Merger

Pokémon USA merged with Pokémon UK in April 2009. The two companies now work under the name The Pokémon Company International, which is responsible for the Pokémon franchise in all territories outside of Asia. The company's president is Kenji Okubo, the former head of Pokémon USA. Okubo said the two companies had worked closely together on a day-to-day basis and that the change in name was done to reflect the connection between the two offices and ensure their worldwide reach.

They also faced criticism in regards to Kayzie Rogers (credited as "Jamie Peacock") in voicing Ash Ketchum. Many fans complained about her portrayal of the character. In response, Pokémon USA announced that they would make a new dub of the The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon with improved voices. The new dub became available on the eighth movieDVD, and was aired on October 28, 2006 on Cartoon Network.

At Comic-Con 2006, it was revealed that Ash's voice actor would change and that his new voice actress would be the then nineteen-year-old Sarah Natochenny. Although generally accepted as a talented actress with many non-animation credits to her name, some fans criticized the company and TAJ Productions for their decision to hire Sarah Natochenny, as she had no experience with animevoice-overs; they claimed that Sarah Natochenny was too inexperienced. Nonetheless, Veronica Taylor, the first actress to voice Ash, was only twenty-years-old and had only started acting when she landed the role, although she had previously voiced anime roles prior to being cast as Ash.

Game Corner censorship

English releases of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen renamed the Gambler Trainer class "Gamer" and altered their dialogue to remove references to gambling. The English versions of the Generation IV games renamed Gamblers to "PI" instead; however, the references to gambling were kept.

All non-Japanese releases of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver replace the slot machines of the two Game Corners in Goldenrod City and Celadon City with a new game called Voltorb Flip. In this minigame, coins are not wagered against a win or a loss but instead given out for completing a level. While many find the game to be entertaining, the change removed the ability to buy coins, effectively making Voltorb Flip a requirement for obtaining them.

Anime dub edits

Like 4Kids, TPCi makes changes while dubbing the anime, but they are more limited in scope. Music edits are common and dialogue edits are usually done to obfuscate explicit religious or death references and match the lip-flap. Paint edits, which 4Kids is infamous for, are rarely performed by TPCi. Also, in every episode TPCi has dubbed to date, the "To Be Continued" screen is extended by three seconds. The reasons for this are unknown.

Litigation

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In January 2005, an issue of the science magazine Nature featured an article in which a group of researchers named a newly discovered cancer-causing gene "Pokémon". Later that year, Pokémon USA had promised to take legal action, causing the gene to be renamed.